Barbarian Europe

The Origins of the Huns

A new view on the eastern heritage of the Hun
tribes.
Text edited from conversations with Kemal Cemal, Turkey, 1 November 2002

Editor's Note:
The subject of this article is somewhat controversial, and the views
expressed here are the author's own. It is presented here as the
'opposition' view of Hunnic origins. It does not fully tie in with
the information carried on the Hun's king list page on this site,
and an exploration of the more orthodox view would be welcome.

Although in the past the Huns are thought to have been Mongolian
emigrants, it is far more likely that they were of Turkic origin. This
point has been repeated by
thousands of historians, sinologists, turcologists, altaistics, and other researchers. Let me try to
state how this idea began with Sinology researchers.

Sinology research in Europe

While the Mongol Empire was in the ascendancy, the power of the Catholic
Church seemed to be fading, and the
power of the Pope was
somewhat shaky. At the same time, the Mongols opened
the eastern roads for travel, and the Pope decided that there were now so many
evident non-Christians
that his power in the West was under severe threat. If he could convert
these
non-Christians he could regain power. As a
result, Jesuit missionaries started to head east. Before spreading Christianity, they
researched Chinese beliefs. They examined Chinese history and philosophy. There were
some missioners who stayed twenty or thirty years in China, and built up
healthy relations with Chinese scholars. They also started to translate
Chinese books about both history and philosophy into Western languages.
The first translations were made in Portuguese. Then this was translated
to the other languages; Spanish, Italian and French. So the West started to
learn about China from these Jesuit missionaries.

Sin means China in Latin and
Sinology means sciences of China." Sinology mainly
started with these translations in the sixteenth century, and Turk history
became part of this study. Later, the number of
Sinology studies increased with many travellers from the West heading to China. The
book written by de Guinness in the eighteenth century is accepted as one of
the important collected studies about Turkish history. De Guinness did not
know Chinese but he wrote the history of the Turks, Mongols and
Tartars by
using Jesuit missionaries' translations. It was printed under the name of
"General History of Turks, Tatars and Mongols."

All the information obtained to this point by the researchers showed that
the Huns were of Turkic origin. We learn nearly
all our current knowledge on the Huns from the information left to us by
their contemporary neighbours.

For example. It is pretty definite that their
language was Turkic. Chinese annals reveals that the Hunnic language was
very close to that of the Töles, a Turkic tribe. The Byzantine Empire said
that the language of the Huns was the same as
the languages of the Bulgars, Avars, Szeklers
(the last of whom were descended from the European Huns themselves - Ed.) and other tribes which were
flooding into Eastern Europe from Central Asia. The historians of that period accepted
that these Turkic-speaking tribes were no different from the Huns because
their
languages were the same.

There are many words written in Chinese chronicles which were used by Huns
in daily life. These are Turkic words. K Shiratoriy, reading a Hunnic
sentence which has survived to the present day, has proven that it is
Turkic. Hunnic-runic writings belonging to European Huns in Cafcasia [sic]
has been
read and has been proven to be of Turkic origin.

One area for backing up this claim is that of Hunnic names. It is difficult to explain the names belonging to
Asian Huns because of fact that they were translated into Chinese in the
form of Chinese names. The meanings of the names of European Huns can
be comfortably explained in Turkish. One of the most striking features
related to European Hunnic names is that they can't be explained by any
language but Turkish. Some of the names belonged to the German language due to
cultural interaction, but the majority of them were Turkish.

* Tengri also means "God" or "Heaven" in Mongolian.

However, there are many names and captions belonging to Hunnish
leaders which were written down in a document at Duro-Eropas, a border
castle in Doma which was captured by the Persians
in 260 BC. These names and captions are Turkish names and captions.

Aramaic writing in present-day Georgia
appeared in the period following the Huns' penetration into the Caucuses.
This writing was also used by the Bulgars. It is estimated that this
writing was proto-Turkic and appeared before the Orkhun inscriptions in Mongolia.

A book written by Gyula Nemeth, the world famous
Hungarian historian is recommended for further reading on this subject,
and will greatly expand on this short feature. There
are many Turkology institutes which study on the origins of the Turks
in many European countries from Denmark and Germany to Russia and Japan.
All of these contain a great number of resources regarding the origin of the Huns.

As stated, many sources claim the Huns were of Mongol origin, since
European Huns were somewhat mongoloid in appearance. Some historians also
accept Turks as Mongols. All of these views are somewhat back-to-front.
The Chinese
annals say the Mongols always lived to the east of the lands in which the Huns
dwelt. The Mongols originate from what is now known as Manchuria.

The Mongol Empire was based on
Turkic elements rather than Mongol elements. The governing structure of the empire was based on Turkic
ideas of governing. The
official language of the Mongol Empire was Uigrian, which is a Turkic
language. Eighteen Turkish tribes played an important role in the founding
of the Mongol Empire. There are many more examples that show the effects of
Turkic elements on the Mongol Empire.

For example, the Indian Moghal Empire was established by
Turks. But many scholars still hold the belief that the Moghals were
of Mongol origin. The truth is that the language of the Moghals was
Turkic, and that the founders of this empire were proud of being Turk.

You can come across many researchers who say the Huns are a
nation whose origin is still mystery. When you look at bibliographies on internet sites
you will see that those sites have referenced the work of historians such as
McGovern and Haelfen-Manchen, but these sites don't
say these authors already accept the Huns as Turkic. Haelfen-Manchen accepts
that Asiatic Huns were in fact of Turkic origin and says that their language
was also Turkic, but he raises an objection by adding that, in his view, European Huns are
not descended from Asiatic Huns.

I don't know the reason for it but many European
researchers still seem not to accept that Attila's Huns were of Turkic stock.

Hunnic Descendants

The word "Hun" comes from the word "kun"
in Turkish ...It means people, or nation. Many now accept that the Bulgars
are the descendants of the Huns. The ancestor of the Bulgars is Kobrat
Han, who was the son of Irnek. Irnek was the son or grandson of Attila. So
the Bulgars are directly descended from the Huns. Their writings were a
different version of the Turkish-Runic writing used in Mongolia.

The Magyars (Hungarians)
are also the descendants of the Huns (a false assumption, although Hungary itself
did contain some Huns, plus Avars and many others - Ed). The dynasty
of Arpad, which founded the present-day Hungary, is descended from the
dynasty of Attila. The very name of the country comes from the name On-Ogur,
which is a Turkish tribe. The Magyars consisted of six amalgamated Turkish
tribes and one other Turkish tribe (a common fallacy which has largely
been disproved, see the Magyar entry for details - Ed).

Magyars and Bulgars were accepted by the Byzantines
as Turkic. for example, the Magyars were called Turks by the Byzantines
during the ninth and twelfth centuries. Both of these tribes have since
been assimilated into the native peoples in which they migrated and
settled and have lost their own cultural features.

There are still hundreds of Turkish words in the Hungarian language. I
hope these few examples will help you in clarifying the origin of the Huns.

Khan Kubrat was the first Bulgar leader to begin to unify the Bulgars in the seventh century

The views expressed here are the author's own. They may
not reflect the views of others and no inference should be made that
this is the case.

Images and text copyright the original author(s). An original feature
for the History Files.